Right, so if you didn’t know before, now you do: I am a Green Bay Packer fan. And we won. Against the Chargers. Despite everyone saying we wouldn’t.

Yay!

And yet, despite my joyousness at leading the division and being 3-0…I have to admit that I am both surprised by this (yes, surprised) and cautiously optimistic about the future.

Plus, being surrounded by Colt fans who are so convinced that they are going to repeat their Super Bowl win (despite the awesomeness of the Patriots this year, but I digress) and that they will go 16-0 (Colts I mean), I walk into every game (ha, on TV of course) expecting the worse.

About a week ago or so I drove down to see my in-laws (my wife and son came with me, I didn’t just randomly go see my in-laws). Through the course of the day, my wife and MiL decide they’re going to go shopping.

In backing out of her driveway, my MiL backs into my car.

>crunch<
Now, I’m all about family love and forgiveness and stuff, but there’s no way I can let this go (not that they asked, but I could see it in my wife’s eyes). So I’ve spent the past week cobbling together the cheapest parts from around town to save them a buck or two.
I’m now a bit frustrated because they keep suggesting things like superglue and I keep suggesting things like driving lessons. Needless to say, this is seriously straining the in-law relationship.
Anyways, a week later, some misordered parts and a worn out credit card later, I now have an assortment of plastic parts sitting in the trunk of my car that cost me 400 dollars.
Yes. 400 dollars to get my turn signal fixed and my headlight mount fixed.
Yeesh.
I got my in-laws to pony up 360 dollars based on quotes, but there was one other piece that I didn’t realize needed to be replaced. So I bought that and they are about 40 dollars short overall.
Should I swallow the 40 dollars or go after them for it?
~sigh~
Decisions Decisions.
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New baby is three months along and doing great. Checkup today was fine. Although if we’d waited another week we could have found out the sex of the baby. Grumble grumble grumble.
Next checkup is in a month, guess we’ll find out then.
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Finished Harry Potter 7. Saw Harry Potter 5. No spoilers here for either one (though seriously, if I could spoil HP 5 for you, we need to talk).
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Child Ziggie (can’t call him Baby anymore) is going through a growth spurt. We are currently hitting one of these a week. At his current rate of growth he will be 6 foot tall by 2nd grade.
Anyone have any Small boys clothes to share?

In an effort to forestall re-installing Windows on my work computer, I downloaded a Registry Cleaner. Among it’s many features was an ability to get rid of “unneeded files”. So I was running it, happy to get my computer cleaned up and happy to push off a Windows re-install until I had more time.

Then a message popped up: 2000+ unneeded files found. Delete?

I clicked on view, looked through all the files, it certainly looked like something I didn’t need anymore.

Just to be safe, I made sure my backup was up to date. It was.

So I clicked Delete.

It chugged through, then popped up finished. Then I noticed something strange….all the icons (and I mean ALL the icons) on my desktop disappeared.

I thought that was strange, but figured explorer locked up and was doing something goofy.

I rebooted, and came back and it’s still empty.

huh.

So I go to my Start menu. It’s empty.

So is my quick launch.

This wonderful program had marked all (yes, all. I did a search) of my lnk (shortcut) files as unnecessary.

~blink~

So now what. I could spend the 2-3 hours to re-create all the shortcuts. It’d be time consuming, but it’d be better than a Windows re-install, right?

Well…no. After 20 minutes of trying to determine which Phtshop.exe actually launched Photoshop and which one tried to reinstall it, I decided I didn’t have time for this.

So I wiped the hard drive and reinstalled Windows.

And…you guessed it, my backups weren’t as current as I thought. (no, just kidding, they were fine).

So now I have a clean Windows machine, with shortcuts, and it’s faster than I remember it ever being.

~sigh~ why did I put up with the crap for so long?

So, my quick notes:

-unnecessary files are sometimes necessary.
-a clean Windows is a happy Windows.
-trial software makes Windows an unhappy Windows.
-apparently the first time I got cygwin to work it was a fluke. It won’t work this time.

So, yes. I am now piecing together my data so that it is something useful.

It’s been ages since I actually updated this thing. Today I just feel the urge to type. Rather than do my job (where’s the fun in that) I thought that instead I could type to the 6 people who read this thing (2 of whom I’m related/married to).

No that wasn’t a pity statement or an asylum request, that was just the fact that I love the anonymity that comes with the web so that I can put my most private thoughts out for all the world to read and know that only 6 people total will probably notice this.

It’s funny, I decided I was going to sit down and update this, but now that I’m sitting here typing I can’t remember any of what I was going to say.

I feel as though I’ve been in a rut lately. It’s mostly my fault, and I feel this way every year when winter is about to burst into spring. I’m getting a bit stir-crazy, tired of being indoors, tired of being stuck in the cold and the hustle and bustle of traffic while cramped up in my truck. To top it off, the drive feels longer and longer every day. I shouldn’t complain about my 30 minute commute when I know of others who drive for an hour and a half or longer, but dangit, it’s boring!!

Surely something will entertain me on the long drive home. I really should look into Podcasts.

Writing Juice Update. The site is coming along slowly. A lot of waiting for approval before I commit a lot of time to getting things fixed or done. Really need a graphic artist to snazz up the site a bit. Maybe I can learn how to draw in my spare time ~snort~

I had a dream the other night that I was given a time machine and told I could do anything, go anywhere, see and change any time that I chose to. The only rule I was given was this: Once changed, I couldn’t unchange anything. I could only visit a time period/location combination once.

Sounds simple, I thought. My unconscious quickly tapped into all the things I should change, presenting them to me in my dream as though I was trying to choose what to eat from a menu. Quickly I zeroed in on a bonehead move I made in high school that (I thought) totally screwed up my life at the time.

So after going back and stopping the unfortunate incident that ended my brief but brilliant football career (just think, there could have been two Chad Johnson’s in pro football!), I returned to the here and now to see what the results were.

I didn’t know anyone I used to. I had money, I had fame, I was on a Pro team (I never did figure out which one) and life should have been good. Instead, I didn’t know anyone from before, and this made me sad.

The dream then sort of trailed off into the randomness that usually comes with my dreams, leaving me trying to figure out how to convince the monkey to get off the motorcycle so that I could go to the bathroom before the Power Rangers came to mow the lawn.

But if anyone wants to take the above and right a really great story, make sure you list me in the thank yous somewhere, k?

I installed Google Desktop again last week. Then uninstalled it three days later for pretty much the same reason I uninstalled it last time. I didn’t need it. I’ve never understood people’s insatiable need for RSS feeds and constant data input. I have a few sites that I go to, and if they aren’t updated, I find something else to do. Who has time to read even a small percentage of the internet that is created every day? Let alone reading the old stuff that has faded out of people’s thoughts and minds and no longer matter.

I watched The Departed last night. Wow, that was a lot of language. But it was a good movie. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it, but I will say this: I didn’t expect the ending. Normally I’m good at catching endings before they happened, but in this case I was surprised.

This kid is growing like a weed. The other day I was sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner with him (I forget where Mommy was). He and I were talking and I realized two things. 1) His conversation has finally moved past the one word sentences (car, car, truck, tv, cow, dog) and is carrying on complex conversations. He has his own wants, needs, desires, etc. and 2) he’s a real person. I know this sounds really dumb to everyone who hasn’t been a parent, but it dawned on me, I think for the first time, that he is his own separate person.

Here today, gone today. You are The Vapor Trail. Are you in a relationship now?

Your exact opposite:The Backrubber DeliberateGentleSexDreamer

What about now?

Vapor Trails can be highly charismatic people–unpredictable, confident, and magnetic. You’re experienced. You know how to handle yourself in a relationship, and many people appreciate that. Many people, all in a row.

You’ve had your share of blissful beginnings, to be sure. But things almost never turn out how you’d like, do they? The problem is you’re never happy with someone for an extended period of time. Relate to the following:

Vapor Trails especially need a girl who will laugh at their jokes. They’re also the most likely male type to be haunted by serious regret.

FACT: A few of your exes, the ones you were best to, will always love you. Nice going.